Dr. Faiz Abbas Abidi

Can Temple track brain health? Why doctors are sceptical of Deepinder Goyal’s wearable device As Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal launches a Rs 85,000 wearable, medical experts warn that relying on unverified brain-tracking tech for stroke risk could be ‘dangerous’ An informative article prepared by @ToufiqRashid published in @firstpost has my quotes. firstpost.com/explainers/can… “The main claim is that the device can act as a surrogate marker of blood flow to the brain. That is where the scientific questions arise,” says Dr Sudhir Kumar, consultant neurologist at Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad. "A surrogate marker is an indirect measurement used to provide information about a biological process that may be difficult to measure directly. Neurologists in India, however, are questioning whether changes detected in the artery near the temple reliably correspond to changes in blood circulation inside the brain." Why are doctors questioning the brain blood-flow claims? “The Temple device measures signals from the superficial temporal artery, which runs close to the skin and supplies blood to the scalp and surrounding tissues. It is a branch of the external carotid artery and is not one of the four major arteries supplying the brain. Therefore, we cannot assume that the readings from this artery accurately reflect blood flow through the arteries supplying the brain,” says Dr Kumar. "He explains that someone could have normal blood flow through the superficial temporal artery while simultaneously having disease or narrowing in the carotid or vertebral arteries." “Just as a person can have a blockage in one of the coronary arteries supplying the heart while the others remain normal, the same principle applies to the brain's blood vessels,” he says. Can Temple predict a stroke or detect blocked arteries? So what is a medical device versus a fitness device, and can consumers tell the difference? This is an important concern, say doctors, because consumers may interpret a device that claims to monitor brain blood flow as something that can provide information about a stroke risk or the health of their brain arteries. Dr Kumar says this assumption would be dangerous. “What is the practical purpose of giving people this information? If someone is buying a device for around Rs 85,000, what exactly are they expected to do with the readings?” he asks. "He cautions that normal readings from the superficial temporal artery cannot rule out a blockage or narrowing in the arteries supplying the brain. “In neurology, clinical symptoms are extremely important. If a person develops difficulty speaking, facial drooping, or weakness in an arm, these symptoms must be taken seriously, irrespective of what a wearable device reports," Dr Kumar cautions. Stroke treatment is time-sensitive. Someone who experiences symptoms but gets a reassuring reading from a wearable could delay reaching a hospital, with potentially serious consequences. "Doctors use the FAST acronym – Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties, and Time – to seek emergency medical attention." "Diagnosis requires urgent hospital assessment and investigations such as CT or MRI scans and, where indicated, vascular imaging. A consumer wearable cannot replace these investigations." "That could have catastrophic consequences," Dr Kumar warns. What scientific evidence is needed to establish that Temple works? The fact that a device produces readings does not automatically mean those readings are accurate or clinically useful. "Dr Kumar says three things must be clearly communicated whenever a new health-monitoring device is introduced: what it can do, what it cannot do, and what limitations consumers should understand." “The research supporting a device also needs to be examined carefully. Studies uploaded to non-peer-reviewed platforms do not carry the same scientific weight as research that has undergone peer review and been published in established journals,” he emphasises. "The neurologist believes the technology should undergo well-designed clinical trials, with its readings compared against established clinical assessments." “Ultimately, the question is whether the device provides information that can be meaningfully used in clinical practice. If it cannot be applied to patient care, what is its practical value?” Dr Kumar asks. When doctors clash with innovators "Dr Kumar says the debate should not be reduced to a confrontation between doctors and entrepreneurs." “This is not a question of doctors versus innovators or doctors versus businessmen. Doctors use medical devices every day. Hospitals invest crores of rupees in equipment because these technologies have demonstrated their usefulness and have been scientifically validated,” he says. "He concludes that developers of new health technologies should clearly present evidence supporting their claims and explain their products’ limitations."

Questioned about Temple's science, Deepinder Goyal's holier-than-thou doctors dig Deepinder Goyal has defended Temple against doctors questioning its scientific basis. Doctors say its brain-flow and Entropy claims still require independent validation. This informative report published in India Today has my quotes, alongside that of other experts. THE BIOMARKER QUESTION "In June, when Goyal first announced the discovery of Entropy as a new biomarker, Hyderabad-based senior neurologist Dr Sudhir Kumar had told India Today Digital that the idea was intriguing but the evidence available did not establish its scientific validity." “The idea of developing a novel physiological metric from signals recorded over the temple region is certainly intriguing, and advances in wearable technology have the potential to improve our understanding of human physiology. However, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” he had said. "His concern was that a correlation between Temple's readings and a laboratory measurement of energy expenditure did not automatically establish that Entropy was a reliable biomarker." "A device registering changes during exercise is one thing; demonstrating that those changes accurately measure metabolism, biological ageing or longevity is quite another." "Dr Kumar had pointed out that the biological basis of the proposed metric, the methodology used to calculate it and independent validation studies were not publicly available." “The key questions are not whether the signal changes with exercise, stress, or meditation, but whether it reliably measures what it claims to measure, whether it adds information beyond existing metrics, and whether acting on it improves health outcomes,” he had said. indiatoday.in/health/story/d… @SumiSukanya @IndiaToday